Grandma’s worst fears were realised when she met her intended. Once the bandit was despatched, which he was – his dead body left to rot – the sedan continued its journey to the Shans. Accordingly, the sedan was held up by the local bandit and one of the sedan carriers, Yu Zhan’ao, grandfather-to-be, took advantage of the distraction to stake a claim. This was still the period when women’s feet were bound to keep them small and, in China at that time, small feet were considered highly erotic. In accordance with tradition, she was carried to the Shan family house in a covered sedan. She had not met him but had heard grim things about him, particularly that he was a leper.
Grandma has been told that she was to marry Shan Bianlang, son of the richest man in the village, who had made his money from a sorghum distillery. The key early event in the lives of Grandma and Grandfather is, of course, their meeting. These three are the main characters of the novel.
The narrator’s father, son of Grandma and Grandfather, was called Douguan. Grandfather was known variously as Commander Yu and Yu Zhan’ao. Grandma was called Little Nine by her original father (this will be explained) while her name was Dai Fenglian. Thus the two main characters are often called merely Grandma and Grandfather. It is not told in chronological order but jumps backwards and forwards.Īs the narrator is the fourth generation, he tends to refer to the characters by his relationship to them. Much of the action takes place during the Japanese occupation of China and describes the resistance of the Chinese to the Japanese. It is set in Northeast Gaomi Township, based on Dalan Township, Gaomi County in Shandong, Mo Yan’s home town. The story is told by the fourth generation son, who is not named. It tells the story of four generations of a family, though focussing on the middle two generations, primarily from the late 1920s to the early 1940s. It is perhaps Mo Yan’s most famous novel, both in China and in the West, not least because of the successful film. This book was first published in serial form, in five sections, in 1986, and appeared in its full form in 1987. Home » China » Mo Yan » 红高粱家族 (Red Sorghum) Mo Yan: 红高粱家族 (Red Sorghum)
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